Monday, December 12, 2016

En Provence- Part 3 and the joy continues

Yahoo, another step is done. A repeat of step one, only in purple. This means more four patches to piece, spin and press. Following Bonnie's instructions resulted in another successful step. I have very few pieces that didn't come out right. Here is a sample of my purple four patches.

Sample of four patches

I pulled even more purples from my stash. I discovered I had lots more dark purples than lavenders, but still managed to find enough diversity to make things work. Here are some of the fabrics I am using to make the last of the four patches.

Last of fabrics for four patches.

I am so happy I took a class here in Cincinnati from Bonnie this spring. One of the quilts I made was Cathedral Stars, which used the tri-rec ruler and had four patches. She taught us how to spin our seams during the workshop. Once you get the skill down, it is amazing how easy it is, how much flatter your quilt is, and how nice the seam nest.

Yahoo-spun seams

As I tried to spin seams and press my blocks I discovered that if I am having trouble it has to do with my sewing. If my seams are not nested they won't spin. Even a miss sew as small as below prevented spinning. Luckily I had less than a half dozen like this. It's amazing how much better things work when I follow Bonnie's instructions!

It's hard to say what the remaining parts of En Provence will bring. I have a feeling the easier parts are behind us. I'm just a little nervous about how involved the remaining steps might be.
Having finished my step 3 I am moving on to the joy of Alliertre. I have 15 star blocks completed, and 15 to go.

12 of my finished star blocks.

The rest are made into kits, which I try to do two at a time. If I can continue this progress I may have this step done by Christmas, and maybe even by next week. Who knows? It all depends on my energy, which is a day to day thing.

Star kits

I am so grateful for these mysteries and the ability to sew. My white counts and platelets are still very low so my social life is very restricted (can't go anywhere). The ability to sew is a life saver. It keeps me active and involved in something productive. If I didn't have this I'd be pulling out my hair....wait, I have no hair....never mind...lol.

I am dividing my time between sewing, and getting ready for Christmas. The great room and the dining room are decorated. This year we put a quilt around the base of the great room tree. It was the cat's idea. Now his favorite pass time is to nestle up in the quilt and sleep under the tree.

A great place to cozy up.

Several years ago, when my grandchildren were little we started the tradition of decorating a smaller tree with Santa and snowmen ornaments. We also had ornaments with family members names on them, and since our grandchildren have names that are hard to find (Gian and Jana) we started putting their pictures in ornaments on the tree. Every few years we add another picture. As you can imagine our collection of pictures has grown. This makes this tree especially fun and special to decorate. When they come to visit it is fun to search for the pictures each year.

Dining room ready for Santa

Thanks for checking in, hope things are going well for everyone. Happy piecing!